IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Philippines

Residents trapped amid gunfire

Thousands of civilians hoping to flee fighting in the besieged Philippine city of Marawi remained trapped on Sunday after a four-hour cease-fire to evacuate residents was marred by gunfire. Only 134 were freed on Sunday, less than on previous days, despite government hopes that more than 1,000 would be able to leave a city battered by 13 days of intense fighting. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte predicted the siege would be over within days despite fierce resistance by fighters aligned to the Islamic State group in the urban heart of the southern city.

Yemen

UN warns on cholera outbreak

A suspected cholera outbreak is spreading quickly in war-ravaged Yemen, with an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 new cases every day, the UN children's agency said on Saturday. Geert Cappelaere, the Middle East director of UNICEF, said in an interview with The Associated Press that 70,000 suspected cases of cholera have been reported in the past month in 19 of Yemen's 22 governorates.

Russia

Man shoots dead eight in quarrel

A man has been detained after shooting dead eight people in a drunken dispute at a weekend cottage in a village outside Moscow, Russian investigators said on Sunday. The alleged assailant gunned down five men and three women after a drinking session on Saturday night turned violent in the village of Redkino, some 110 kilometers northwest of Moscow, the Investigative Committee said. "During the get-together there was a domestic dispute between the guests, after which the suspect left and then returned with a hunting rifle," investigators said.

Brazil

Special adviser to Temer arrested

Former Brazilian lawmaker Rodrigo Rocha Loures, a special adviser to Brazilian President Michel Temer, was arrested on Saturday in a corruption investigation that also implicates the president, police said. In a police video released last month, Rocha Loures was seen receiving a suitcase containing 500,000 reais ($150,000) in cash that prosecutors claim was a bribe from the owner of the world's largest meatpacker JBS company.

Vietnam

Hanoi swelters in heat wave

Vietnam's capital city of Hanoi is being hit by a prolonged heat wave with the temperature in the downtown area reaching 41.5 C, the highest since 1971, the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said on Sunday. The center said that the heat wave will end on Monday in Vietnam's northern region and on Tuesday in the central region.

(China Daily 06/05/2017 page12)